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The Sentinel

The Sentinel

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Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Scary flick!
Review: "The Sentinel" is a grand 1970's horror film staffed with a cast rivaling the pictures made by Robert Altman or Irwin Allen. I can't remember the last time I saw a film with so many recognizable faces--Christopher Walken, Chris Sarandon, Beverly D'Angelo, Burgess Meredith, John Carradine, Jerry Orbach, Jeff Goldblum, Ava Gardner, Martin Balsam, Jose Ferrar, Eli Wallach, Arthur Kennedy, and Tom Berenger all pop up in roles both major and minor throughout the film. "The Sentinel" obviously takes films like "The Omen," "Rosemary's Baby," and "The Exorcist" as its role models, and it holds up surprisingly well in comparison. When I stumbled over this film a few months ago, I was quite astounded I had never heard of it before considering I am such a fan of 1970's horror films dealing with satanic influences. Michael Winner, the director who presented us with such classic cinema as "Scorpio," "Death Wish," and "The Mechanic," gives us his all in this chilling story about a gateway to Hell and the poor souls entrusted to protect the rest of us from the evil spirits dwelling there. The movie is an adaptation of a book written by Jeffrey Konvitz.

A model named Alison Parker and her successful lawyer boyfriend Michael Lerman (Christina Raines and Chris Sarandon respectively) begin their descent into madness when Parker rents a room in a creepy old apartment building from mysterious real estate agent Miss Logan (Ava Gardner). The model soon discovers her new dwellings possess a decidedly sinister atmosphere--a blind priest sits and stares out of the window of the top floor apartment, an elderly creep spouting cryptic comments (Burgess Meredith) keeps dropping by, and a couple of females in an extremely close relationship live in a neighboring apartment. Within a few days of moving in, Parker begins to hear strange noises, starts having vivid memories of a suicide attempt she made as a child, sleepwalks, and discovers a few hideous secrets about the other tenants in the building. By the time Alison starts having fainting fits during fashion shoots, her boyfriend Michael steps in and starts investigating the strange apartment building. Lerman's nosing around brings in a couple of detectives (Wallach and Walken) who remember well how Michael's first wife died under mysterious circumstances. When bodies start turning up, "The Sentinel" becomes a race to discover what evil lurks in the apartment building before the cops pin the weirdness on Lerman.

Winner's film evokes shudders on numerous levels. You'll gasp in surprise several times during the film, from the eventual revelations about the strange residents to what Beverly D'Angelo's character does when Alison Parker pays a visit (I had to replay that scene a couple of times just to convince myself that I did really see that. Purely from an academic aspect, of course. Honest.). I've seen several films where Burgess Meredith works hard at being weird--"Burnt Offerings" is an excellent example--but I don't remember him ever attaining the level of bizarre he does here. He's downright disturbing as the elderly neighbor who drops in on Raines's character from time to time. The conclusion of the film definitely constitutes one of the more disturbing endings I have seen in a horror film, and it does so with a lot less gore than you would expect. I thought the plot of "The Sentinel" was a good one, a plot both frighteningly offbeat and effectively eerie.

I had a lot of fun watching for famous faces. Most of the actors who appeared in the film weren't that well known yet, and they look younger than you could ever imagine. Jeff Goldblum plays a pushy fashion photographer, Beverly D'Angelo turns up as a lesbian with a penchant for showmanship, and Christopher Walken plays a cop. Walken especially is humorous to watch. He only has about two lines in the entire film yet still manages to exude his now famous sense of weirdness. Chris Sarandon has since become a better known actor through such roles as the vampire in "Fright Night," and Jerry Orbach made a name for himself as a character actor in films ("Brewster's Millions") and as one of the cops in the television show "Law and Order." The only real mystery here is Christina Raines as Alison Parker. Here's an actress in the lead role in a film loaded with young and old talent alike, and she barely makes a splash. In fact, she hasn't made a movie or television show since the late 1980s. What happened? Personally, I didn't care for her character in the movie or how she played the part. Even worse, considering she's supposed to be playing a big buck fashion model, she isn't very attractive. You will have a better time watching the interesting mix of actors and actresses instead of focusing on Raines's histrionic performance.

"The Sentinel" doesn't provide much in the way of extras outside of a trailer and some production notes. Even the picture transfer isn't all that good, unfortunately. You would figure a movie loaded with so many once was and would be stars would get a better treatment. Oh well, give the movie a shot if you love horror. Creepy, grotesque, and shocking--"The Sentinel" managed to surprise me, a jaded horror aficionado, more than a few times. Let's hope they rerelease the movie on a DVD with a better picture transfer, more extras, and perhaps a commentary from the likes of Sarandon.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Still scary
Review: "The Sentinel" is a grand 1970's horror film staffed with a cast rivaling the pictures made by Robert Altman or Irwin Allen. I can't remember the last time I saw a film with so many recognizable faces--Christopher Walken, Chris Sarandon, Beverly D'Angelo, Burgess Meredith, John Carradine, Jerry Orbach, Jeff Goldblum, Ava Gardner, Martin Balsam, Jose Ferrar, Eli Wallach, Arthur Kennedy, and Tom Berenger all pop up in roles both major and minor throughout the film. "The Sentinel" obviously takes films like "The Omen," "Rosemary's Baby," and "The Exorcist" as its role models, and it holds up surprisingly well in comparison. When I stumbled over this film a few months ago, I was quite astounded I had never heard of it before considering I am such a fan of 1970's horror films dealing with satanic influences. Michael Winner, the director who presented us with such classic cinema as "Scorpio," "Death Wish," and "The Mechanic," gives us his all in this chilling story about a gateway to Hell and the poor souls entrusted to protect the rest of us from the evil spirits dwelling there. The movie is an adaptation of a book written by Jeffrey Konvitz.

A model named Alison Parker and her successful lawyer boyfriend Michael Lerman (Christina Raines and Chris Sarandon respectively) begin their descent into madness when Parker rents a room in a creepy old apartment building from mysterious real estate agent Miss Logan (Ava Gardner). The model soon discovers her new dwellings possess a decidedly sinister atmosphere--a blind priest sits and stares out of the window of the top floor apartment, an elderly creep spouting cryptic comments (Burgess Meredith) keeps dropping by, and a couple of females in an extremely close relationship live in a neighboring apartment. Within a few days of moving in, Parker begins to hear strange noises, starts having vivid memories of a suicide attempt she made as a child, sleepwalks, and discovers a few hideous secrets about the other tenants in the building. By the time Alison starts having fainting fits during fashion shoots, her boyfriend Michael steps in and starts investigating the strange apartment building. Lerman's nosing around brings in a couple of detectives (Wallach and Walken) who remember well how Michael's first wife died under mysterious circumstances. When bodies start turning up, "The Sentinel" becomes a race to discover what evil lurks in the apartment building before the cops pin the weirdness on Lerman.

Winner's film evokes shudders on numerous levels. You'll gasp in surprise several times during the film, from the eventual revelations about the strange residents to what Beverly D'Angelo's character does when Alison Parker pays a visit (I had to replay that scene a couple of times just to convince myself that I did really see that. Purely from an academic aspect, of course. Honest.). I've seen several films where Burgess Meredith works hard at being weird--"Burnt Offerings" is an excellent example--but I don't remember him ever attaining the level of bizarre he does here. He's downright disturbing as the elderly neighbor who drops in on Raines's character from time to time. The conclusion of the film definitely constitutes one of the more disturbing endings I have seen in a horror film, and it does so with a lot less gore than you would expect. I thought the plot of "The Sentinel" was a good one, a plot both frighteningly offbeat and effectively eerie.

I had a lot of fun watching for famous faces. Most of the actors who appeared in the film weren't that well known yet, and they look younger than you could ever imagine. Jeff Goldblum plays a pushy fashion photographer, Beverly D'Angelo turns up as a lesbian with a penchant for showmanship, and Christopher Walken plays a cop. Walken especially is humorous to watch. He only has about two lines in the entire film yet still manages to exude his now famous sense of weirdness. Chris Sarandon has since become a better known actor through such roles as the vampire in "Fright Night," and Jerry Orbach made a name for himself as a character actor in films ("Brewster's Millions") and as one of the cops in the television show "Law and Order." The only real mystery here is Christina Raines as Alison Parker. Here's an actress in the lead role in a film loaded with young and old talent alike, and she barely makes a splash. In fact, she hasn't made a movie or television show since the late 1980s. What happened? Personally, I didn't care for her character in the movie or how she played the part. Even worse, considering she's supposed to be playing a big buck fashion model, she isn't very attractive. You will have a better time watching the interesting mix of actors and actresses instead of focusing on Raines's histrionic performance.

"The Sentinel" doesn't provide much in the way of extras outside of a trailer and some production notes. Even the picture transfer isn't all that good, unfortunately. You would figure a movie loaded with so many once was and would be stars would get a better treatment. Oh well, give the movie a shot if you love horror. Creepy, grotesque, and shocking--"The Sentinel" managed to surprise me, a jaded horror aficionado, more than a few times. Let's hope they rerelease the movie on a DVD with a better picture transfer, more extras, and perhaps a commentary from the likes of Sarandon.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: About THIS umvd edition DVD....
Review: For those wondering, the umvd edition of The Sentinel is in anamorphic widescreen, and is enhanced for 16x9 television sets, so there are no black bars. The print is better than the previous release by GoodTimes, but despite other reviewers saying there is another cut of this film, this one is the same one you get on the good times disc, and there are no extras.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: GREAT
Review: I got this ages ago when it first came out on DVD in pan and scan. I loved it, and it had the "priest-get-together" that everyone said was cropped from all the other versions.

I got it for $5 at Best Buy in the bargain bin. This was a couple of years ago that I had this version on DVD.

Mike

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Excellent Horror Classic; curious difference in story
Review: I have just purchase the DVD from Goodtimes Video of the 70's horror classic. As other customers have noted, it is really worth having, and there is indeed a lot that you will see that is cut out of "TV" versions. However, there is at least one scene missing from the DVD, and I wonder if other viewers have noticed this..that is the scene or scenes that pertain to the group of priests who call themselves "The Brotherhood of the protectors" who had been disbanded from the church for their beliefs. The is at least one scene showing a meeting of the "brothers" that is in my age-old tape of a television broadcast of the film that is not shown in the DVD. However, in the beginning of the DVD, the movie begins in Northern Italy with a group of priests discussing the "danger" as do the "brotherhood" in the "other" version. I also note the another DVD version is set to be released on September 7, 2004 by Umvd. So, I await this release to see if the deleted scene is included. I wonder if anyone would like to comment on this oddity? Aside from this curious detail, I thoroughly enjoyed the DVD from Goodtimes Video.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Excellent Horror Classic; curious difference in story
Review: I have just purchase the DVD from Goodtimes Video of the 70's horror classic. As other customers have noted, it is really worth having, and there is indeed a lot that you will see that is cut out of "TV" versions. However, there is at least one scene missing from the DVD, and I wonder if other viewers have noticed this..that is the scene or scenes that pertain to the group of priests who call themselves "The Brotherhood of the protectors" who had been disbanded from the church for their beliefs. The is at least one scene showing a meeting of the "brothers" that is in my age-old tape of a television broadcast of the film that is not shown in the DVD. However, in the beginning of the DVD, the movie begins in Northern Italy with a group of priests discussing the "danger" as do the "brotherhood" in the "other" version. I also note the another DVD version is set to be released on September 7, 2004 by Umvd. So, I await this release to see if the deleted scene is included. I wonder if anyone would like to comment on this oddity? Aside from this curious detail, I thoroughly enjoyed the DVD from Goodtimes Video.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: There Has Always Been a Sentinel
Review: I have seen this movie a number of times and never liked it. But with the complete movie available on DVD I now can appreciate the movie as it was intended. Because of its subject matter and sexual references, much of the story was missing when I had seen it in the past.

A young model get her own apartment in New York as she feels she needs some space away from her fiance. No sooner does she move in than she meets most of the eccentric residents of the building. Everyone except a blind priest who stares out of a window on the top floor. But when things go bump in the night and she complains, she finds out that she and the priest are the only residents. She must have imagined anyone else.

More strange things begin to happen and her fiancé gets involved in trying to figure out what is going on. While no one seems to know what is going on (other than church officials wearing a special ring), most are convinced that there is something going on. Eventually we learn how the model ties into the events, the importance of her building, and what the priest is doing.

If you have only seen the edited versions of this film, you have not had the chance to truly experience this tale. In its complete form the movie makes sense and flows well in ways that were just not possible when it was butchered. If you like religious horror you should check this one out.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Strange Neighbors
Review: In the 1970's there was a sort of "satanic renaissance" in film: "The Omen", "The Exorcist", "Rosemary's Baby", and last and probably least, "The Sentinel".

While this is not what I'd call a great horror film, there are genuinely chilling, demented moments: Burgess Meredith is particularly eerie as an old "birdman" who lives in the doomed tenement complex the unfortunate Cristina Raines, a budding supermodel and soon to be basket case, takes up residence in.

You can tell right from the outset of the film that something is terribly wrong with her new living quarters--the other inhabitants are strange old cookies (watch for the two old lesbians) who seem a little over eager to have Raines in their odd little community. John Carradine is the key to the film: he lives on the top floor, supposedly simply a blind old recluse. He is much more.

The film lacks the subtlety of "Rosemary's Baby", but does possess the mood of enroaching doom. The ending is not exactly happy, but there are some unforgettable scenes in which the "tenants" reveal who they really are, and Raines' husband meets a grisly end.

If you like 70's horror, this is essential.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: A Creepy, Odd, Unsettling Sideshow of a Horror Flick
Review: It amazes me that this movie was made when it was. Viewing it again recently creeped me out much more than it did on my first viewing years ago. Back then, I had read and really liked the book, when I saw the film, i wasn't as impressed. Now after viewing it again, it scares me more. Some of the things here that I did not apprecaite before, practically jumped off of the screen and slapped me in the face. On the surface, it is very much that typical gates of hell meets Burnt Offerings kind of story - but really it is in some respects a complete freak show, in-you-face attempt to make you squirm. Have we become so conservative that this older film seems more potent now than then?

I put the DVD in - vaguely remembering most of it and as the credits roll I see: Chris Sarandon, Burgess Meredith, Ava Gardner, Beverly D'Angelo, Sylvia Miles, John Carradine, Eli Wallach, Jeff Goldblum, Christopher Walken ... wow! Once the story takes off, were treated to naked freaks from hell, a horrific menage scene, acid-trip looking birthday parties for cats, and Beverly D'angelo masturbating silently on her couch in front of company! Of course they're all disciples of Hell pursuing poor Christina Raines - but man do they creep you out. Recommended more as reminder of what we used to be able to get away with than the ultimate and obviios conclusion but what a sick, creepy ride.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Watcher At The Gate...
Review: Super-model Alison Parker (Cristina Raines) wants an apartment of her own, so she has a place to go if things don't work out with her boyfriend, Michael (Chris Sarandon). Alison was traumatized a few years earlier when she walked in on her creepy father during one of his extra-marital "parties". It was NOT a pretty sight! She had attempted suicide over the ordeal. Her mother stayed with dad because she had nowhere else to go. After dad's death, odd things begin happening to Alison. She passes out at a photo-shoot. Back at her apartment building, she begins meeting other tenants who are more than a bit odd. Among them are Burgess Merideth as an old guy with way too much enthusiasm, and Sylvia Miles and Beverly D'Angelo as a couple of gals who can't keep their hands off each other. D'Angelo makes Alison extremely uncomfortable by being rather... um, er, naughty in front of her. Alison also learns about the priest (John Carradine) who lives on the top floor. He's blind, but spends his entire life "looking" out the window! When Alison complains about her weird neighbors, the realtor (Ava Gardner) tells her that no one else lives in the building except for Alison and the priest! Later, Alison passes out while filming a commercial and never fully recovers. She is in a daze. Michael tries to get to the bottom of things and finds out a very bizarre secret. A secret that will cost lives and alter destinies! THE SENTINEL is a good spooker with many interesting characters. It also has tons of stars, both old and new including Martin Balsam (Psycho, Cape Fear), Jose Ferrer, Arthur Kennedy, Eli Wallach (The Good The Bad And The Ugly), a very young Jerry Orbach (tv's Law And Order), Christopher Walken (Batman Returns, Sleepy Hollow), Jeff Goldblum (The Fly, Jurrassic Park), and others! The finale alone is worth the price of the DVD! If you like zombies, ghosts, demons, occult, good vs. evil, and a deep sense of paranoia and fear, then THE SENTINEL is just what the mad doctor ordered! ...


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